In support of Mr Frost’s letter

Mr Frost’s letter to Mr Barnier told him some home truths. Is the EU stupid or wicked in thinking that the UK wants to stay as part of the single market, and therefore needs to make concessions to do so? The UK has made it crystal clear we are leaving both the single market and the customs union. We have also made it clear we would be willing to grant the EU a Free Trade Agreement, which will help them more than us, as an act of friendship which could also be of modest benefit to us as well.

As Mr Frost asks, why is the EU apparently unwilling to offer the UK something similar to the FTAs it signed with Canada and Japan? They obviously thought those were in their interest.

I at last got a speaking slot yesterday in Parliament. I made clear there must be no UK concessions and no extension to the negotiations. Either they come round to an FTA or they do not. It’s up to them. The UK will be fine either way. We do not need to pay to trade- not in money, not in fish nor by sacrificing our freedoms.

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I agree with your position on this. Furthermore I believe that the UK now is potentially much better placed to respond to the economic consequences of the lock down. That potential rests on the quality of the government’s policy decisions and their effective execution. The impact of C-19 demands radical reform to boost economic recovery.

The EU still think they can bully us into submission, as they’ve done in the past with Cameron and May.
We all appreciate the stand Boris is taking, and just want to get on with it… Whatever the EU can deny us for not remaining tied to their apron cannot be worse than lockdown – We will survive a ‘no deal’ nicely, thankyou.

Barnier has made it clear many times, that he goes along with the notion of punishing the UK, while sucking every last penny out of us that they can – I would not say his approach was moral or honest. He seems to have a personal vendetta.

The EU is neither stupid nor wicked to notice that the UK is neither Japan nor Canada.

The UK is starting this negotiation de facto from the heart of the Single-Market by virtue of having been a member of the EU for forty years, a time it spent crafting the competition rules, state aid and environmental standards it now desperately and inexplicably want to get out of.

Mr Frost’s letter contains nothing new. It is the same cherry picking approach to the negotiations which has been on display for the past 3 years. It’s tone convey the same old sens of entitlement and but hurt English nationalism we have grown accustomed to.

I doubt the EU was actually the intended recipient and suspect that it was rather the Brexit faithfuls who like to post on your blog.

Given the bungling of the COVID crisis by the current government which managed to outperform Italy when it comes to mismanagement of its care homes, one may understand why it may want to change the narrative by rallying the Brexiters to the flag, lest people start asking nasty questions.

I can report that Mr Frost’s letter is barely mentioned in the continental press this morning. This should tell you the level of priority attached to Brexit by the Europeans these days.

3 EU countries have higher death rates than the UK and the only country whose health system was overwhelmed by the Wuhan virus was a member state of the EU. Such comparisons are of course meaningless as there all sorts of reasons – obviously cities like London and New York would be hit harder than eg Athens or Auckland. But you leftists like to make such comparisons so there you are.

Probably the right approach for both the EU and the UK is to stop wasting time repeating un-reconcilable positions and just agree we move to WTO terms on Jan 1. Even then of course, unless the EU actually wants a trade war, we can still continue tariff free trade and all sorts of other conveniences over travel, landing rights etc.

Because the EU has no intention of letting the UK take advantage of it. The EU is not there to make your average Conservative voter happy. It is there to safeguard the interest of its constituent member states, who are pretty happy that it is Barnier and not them who has to waste precious time in these negotiations.

Tabulazero, Cherry-picking is the essence of a good negotiator. Unfortunately the UK negotiators have failed to cherry pick anything like enough. We should insist that the EU conforms to our laws, changes its single market to reflect Thatcher’s anti-dirigiste requirements, and that we can take some of their fish for our trouble.

You ask is the EU stupid or wicked in thinking that we want to stay part of the single market. I’d say it’s probably a bit of both. There have been so many pro EU British people eg Tony Blair who have been liaising with Brussels and misinforming them that I think they truly believe we might cave at the last moment.

Also, they are so terrified of us succeeding as an independent nation and will directly compete and beat them that the need to prevent us being totally independent is their worst nightmare.

Their intransigence and inflexibility will be their downfall. But to takeover a continent by stealth, as they have tried doing, I suppose the script had to be adhered to!

People such as you have crowed that the UK is leaving the Customs Union and the Single Market, indeed, John.

However, when the European Union’s representatives explain the logical and inevitable consequences of that, you refuse to accept them, or try to deny to the people of this country what will happen, or say that the German car makers will somehow threaten to destroy the whole thing if that were true, and make other such fanciful claims.

Just like those of this damned coronavirus, the facts will soon be impossible to hide though.

So true. “We are leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union” cry the Brexiters gleefully! And then when they are calmly told that of course that choice will be fully respected, but that leads to tariffs, border checks, problems in Ireland, non-recognition of UK qualifications, no more passporting rights for our companies and visa requirements for our people, plus loss of every single one of the EU’s global free trade deals, they start spluttering “what? Why? We don’t want that, its not fair, we never knew”

Corazon, We did know. There are numerous papers from eurosceptics over the last two decades which show this. A WTO registered RTA provides some advantages – for both sides – but is less than is often supposed in the MSM. Certainly your glee at the supposed disadvantages of WTO trade overlooks the fact that it is – in money terms – worse for the EU.

Mr Farage on a boat in the Channel saw a French patrol boat escorting a boatload of migrants to be taken off onto a British patrol boat. One on Farage’s boat was filming it with the consequence that the British Coast Guard threatened the boat owner with confiscating his boat if he didn’t stop the filiming.
That is probably illegal but gives an insight on what is happening in the channel.
I don’t read newspapers so any report on this in them? I have heard nothing on any BBC news.

I just hope we don’t concede part of their absurd demands as a so-called ‘compromise’. We do not need to pay them to have a trade surplus with us. Knowing how they negotiate, it is odd that we haven’t made our own set of absurd demands which could be traded off against theirs.

Any deal with the EU in its present form is just not worth it. The establishment can’t wait to tie us in with agreements we don’t need.
We don’t need an FTA with the EU. We are doing a massive favour offering it.

Walk now and Walk quickly, dont look back. Move on to other UK problems like controlling our borders , laws and trade with those that are minded.

The Tory government has repeatedly made it clear that it is leaving the single market and customs union – despite having no mandate from an overall majority of voters to do so.

But Mr Frost’s letter also seems to make it clear that the Brexiteers have themselves not accepted the consequences of Brexit.

Membership of the SM and CU comes with the benefits of free and frictionless trade but in return there are obligations on members.

By trying to cherry pick various aspects of agreements the EU has done with others the UK is effectively trying to gain all the advantages of SM and CU membership with none of the costs.
The EU is totally right to say no.

The EU has been honest about the cost of Brexit since the start. And the Brexiteers have continued to be dishonest about it. Even now they are pretending to Brexit voters that Brexit will be cost free. It won’t.

Mr Frost is an unelected and unaccountable bureaucrat. With his appalling letters – an attempt to negotiate by tantrum – he has demonstrated his unfitness to serve. A disgrace to our country.

Andy, It was made abundantly and repeatedly clear during the Referendum campaign that Leave meant leaving the customs union (leaving the CCP); leaving the single market (trading an RTA); and regaining control of our UNCLoS rights (200nm fishing).

In the EU, exporting to the rest of the EU is neither free nor frictionless. Especially not for services. And it is only c12.4% of UK GDP. Freeing up the other nearly 88% UK GDP is rather more important. As for cherry-picking, that is exactly what the EU is trying to do – make us into a colony so we pay and obey but get nothing in return.

Mr Frost’s letter has only one purpose: to spin the probable outcome that the EU is punishing the Uk (unfairly obviously) by denying benefits the UK wants and hence, that a no deal outcome (as per mr Redwoo’d final para) is not only fine but also unjust.

Anyway, the letter is easy to read and unusually undiplomatic/emotional, the attached draft proposal is pretty offensive by what it claims and especially by what is left blank. Anyway, no one will care. The EU (as I have said many times here) is completely resigned to the UK having left and has other things on their minds. There is no way the UK approach will lead to a deal that benefits the UK, or allows the UK to function (rules of origin) as a conduits for third countries intent on unfair competition within the single market.

Is the next phase going to be a campaign to teach the British public that the UK (in hindsight) should not have saved Europe from Hitler? Conveniently forgetting that that is what the US and especially the USSR did, with a cameo performance for the British. Out of self-interest. Exactly what states do and the EU will do in its dealings with the UK and vice versa. Sentiment has no place in diplomacy; it is the loser’s card and for the home audience only.

M Barnier seems to have worked himself up into an indignant fury which is a good sign. It really is a pity a robust approach wasn’t taken 4 years ago in which case we would by now be 2 years or so into a trade deal and people would have forgotten what the word Brexit meant.

It’s quite clear we need just to leave now whether we have an agreement or not, and focus on FTAs with countries which will agree normal terms like mutual recognition of standards and self certification, and don’t require colonial type legal and tax vetoing powers. If the EU won’t agree a sensible FTA now we can come back to it in a few years time perhaps.

If after a few years it all turns out to be the disaster which the continuity remain minority loudly proclaim, which I rather doubt, we will just have to crawl back into the EU, tails between our legs, and accept the full panoply of EU rules, euro, bailouts and transfers, included.

Well said – I just hope people listen. There are times when it is frustrating – why cannot we just deliver ultimatim? We are being strung along in the hope we will concede, like before. In the meantime what have the EU got to lose (well a damn lot actually) ? Each month they get another £1bn to shore up a nonsense budget.

Why won’t the EU offer FTA’s like Canada and Japan? The answer surely is that they still entertain hopes that the UK will re-join or have a ‘close relationship’ – i.e. be under EU control. They have this view because of the years of the May government assuring them that things are being watered down in that direction and of course all the EU headbangers who even now, after we haft left, cannot accept democracy (for those who cannot grasp the concept, that is the result of the the referendum and elections which binned the EU supporting parties to irrelevance). You are doing your best to keep Mr.Johnson honest in this matter, but what of your government and party colleagues? Are you sure? We cannot rest until this matter is finalised by the end of the year, already 4 years too late, without concessions to the EU. They must learn to live by themselves as friends and traders, not governors of the UK.

@graham1946: “close relationship” doesn’t mean being under EU’s control! It requires mutual respect. If you read Mr Barnier’s response letter on his twitter account that might become more clear.
I could imagine that in future (say five years) a comprehensive associative agreement would be possible. For now, the UK wants to go it alone and so it will be.

There is already the suggestion from the continent that the UK starts negotiating instead of writing letters (Mr Barnier’s reply).
Personally I’m not surprised – the EU27 has been so perfectly clear from the start.
Now a no-deal seems ever more likely and trust in the UK is starting to wear thin.

Peter,
In proper negotiations both sides need to be flexible.
In your post you make it clear the EU have had their position fixed from the start.
So the implication is that the UK must negotiate by simply accepting all the requirements of the EU.
That is not negotiation.

@Edward2: I assume that you have read Mr Barnier’s reply by now. You can find it on twitter.
Within the basic principles outlined once again (call them red lines if you want) I still see a lot of room for negotiations.

PvL, The only guiding “principle” the EU has is power. Without that it collapses. That the EU is attempting to continue its power over the UK is no surprise. We always wanted free trade rather than to be ruled by an empire. There is thus no scope for negotiation.

Andy, It’s you who is always moaning. You moan about the Referendum; you moan about the Referendum result; you moan about “17.4m old/angry/Tory Brexit voters”; you moan that as soon as enough old Brexit voters have died you’ll reverse Brexit; you moan about leaving the single market; you moan about leaving the customs union; you moan about the £350m/wk slogan; you moan about the temerity of the UK standing up to your EU empire; you moan (incorrectly – it’s actually the USA) that the EU is the biggest market; you moan that the UK cannot govern itself; you moan that we won’t have enough workers; you moan that we will all be unemployed without the EU; you moan that the UK cannot be independent like New Zealand; moan; moan; moan; moan. You’ve never stopped moaning since you started on here. You have revealed that the heart of Remain is unremittingly negative about our own country whilst being blinded by a mere foreign political ideology. Your view that we cannot exist and prosper without the EU telling us what to do is risible. You lost – for God’s sake get over it, or you’ll do yourself a mental mischief.

@Alan Jutson: At this stage not really Alan. There seem to be new insights/convictions about what a nation or indeed the EU itself could take on as longterm debt. There are also new, untapped resources, like finally a tax on turnover in the EU countries by the likes of Facebook, Google and others.

@Dennis Zoff: I appreciate your sarcasm 🙂
But . . . the EU has usually evolved through crises and this may continue. Now we see the Northern part of the EU realising that some kind of debt mutualisation is necessary, which will lead to more financial transfer. That may lead to more oversight and governance at EU level, e.g. a euro budget and commisioner in charge of that. The EU will not become a superstate but remain a hybrid monster (not a monster in my view of course 🙂 ). Do expect many more problems and crises for the EU, but try to view them as growing pains.
I wish that the UK may be similarly successful in its endeavours to be (become?) a global leader in various fields.

A good point and thank you for a somewhat better understanding of the British psyche than most?

In general terms nobody (imho) in the UK is anti European (certainly not me, too much personal European vested interest; including my Dutch family and friends).

The majority of UK voters decided a EU contruct is not for them, but the European majority appear to wish for a continuance. I genuinely wish our European friends good luck. There are future challenges for all of us?

Any country that cleverly think it can pretty much enjoy the benefits of the Single-Market but none of its obligations by the grace of having been a member state for 40 years is in for a rude awakening.

… especially if said country is run by a bunch of politicians who are inherently hostile to the very idea of an European Union.

Still flogging the same dead horse Mr Van Leeuwen. We know what the EU says Its terms are. They are, as they always have been, entirely unacceptable, so there will be no deal. The best long term result for the UK.

There is already the suggestion from the continent that the UK starts negotiating instead of writing letters (Mr Barnier’s reply).
Personally I’m not surprised – the EU27 has been so perfectly clear from the start.
Now a no-deal seems ever more likely and trust in the UK is starting to wear thin.

Mr Barnier is, of course, perfectly entitled to his opinion as to how he should conduct his negotiation. He is also entitled to his opinion as to how the UK should conduct its negotiation but he should not be surprised if the UK has its own opinions.

Some may agree with you that the EU has been clear from the start. For example, had Mr Juncker been inclined to offer something constructive to Mr Cameron then there was a possibility the UK electorate just might have voted “remain”, but he was not so inclined and the UK electorate voted leave. Arguably the EU has been consistent ever since, as has the UK electorate. I accept that the UK Parliament has not shown the same level of consistency as the UK electorate and I can only apologise for that.

In all of the circumstances I believe that a so called “no deal” was always the more likely and trust in both sides was always “thin”.

I think you maybe right so far as the UKs EU membership is concerned. However, I believe that the mind of the EU has been consistently hard from the outset … which it is perfectly entitled to be. However, the mind of UK Parliament hardened more recently when it belatedly decided it needed to listen to the majority of the UK electorate.

Both sides are now both looking for something better than a so called “no deal”. I will be surprised if this is achievable, but we shall see. Either way, I believe that the UK Parliament would risk its new found popularity with its electorate if it breaks its promise of a conclusion by 31 December.

PvL said: “There is already the suggestion from the continent that the UK starts negotiating instead of writing letters”. Have you any idea how petulant that sounds? Who are you to define how we should negotiate? Or the EU?

And as for the EU being “perfectly clear”, it has actually been all over the place. The EU failed to read the signals from Cameron, and thereby helped to produce the Leave vote. Since then, the EU has attempted to overturn our vote (with help from the Remains) as it did in Holland, France and Eire. Again a failure. Now the EU has backed itself into a corner with nowhere to go. And at the very time bits are flying off the EU and EZ due to dodgy sovereign debt.

I considered Mr Frost’s letter as one of support for M. Barnier, as he appears to have been abandoned by those who provided him with an unachievable, ideological mandate, whilst omitting him any latitude. It’s unfortunate that “best endeavours” has had to include imparting an unpleasant, sharp message to wake the EU from its deep slumber. We can only hope that their reaction will be more than the ususal display of peevishness!

May I ask, though, what exactly is the EU’s objective meant to be? M. Barnier’s mandate appears to concentrate on process, not an overall ambition for trade. I presume, because their natural inclination is to expend all their energies on preserving their failing project. It’s truly worrying how destructive their ideology has been on Europe and quite bewildering that they won’t modify their demands; do they want Europe to be in a position to trade competitively, or not?

You find it bewildering that the EU won’t do what the UK wants? Don’t you think you should have thought through before you voted to Leave? Perhaps with reference to the many experts who explained at the time that Vote Leave were selling you a chocolate fireguard?

The EU is by its very nature protectionist, inward-looking, and anti-competitive. Hence its obsession with a ‘level playing field’ – which means of course adopting their rules – and their future rules, as they are subsequently altered to outlaw competition and shore up regional monopoly. May was of course anxious to agree to all that – the EU still thinks it can force such idiocy on her successors in the name of ‘free trade’.

One of Kaiser Wilhelm’s principal pre-war grudges was that Great Britain ignored his constant pleading for ‘less competition’.

Just as many people, including me, were waiting very keenly for the results of the UK hydroxychloroquine re-purposed drug trials which were announced over 2 months ago, we today learn that the trials have not yet even started, and that the results won’t be available until the end of 2020 !

I wonder what is the reason for the changed approach, and why is it fine in the view of ”Downing Street” for thousands of NHS staff to take hydrozychloroquine but not the President of the United States ?

This is a different trial surely, we have been signing patients up to the Recovery Clinical trial in large numbers for weeks now, this seems to be a new trail to see if it can be useful as a preventative measure.

I am not sure that we owe the EU an ‘act if friendship’ after subsidising the EU to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds over the past few decades. If the FTA doesn’t make economic sense for us, after a rational rather than emotional analysis, then we should leave the EU’s orbit without one. And keep our fish.

We are never going to be able to completely leave the EU orbit because that is where we are geographically located and this is the big difference between ourselves and Canada, Japan etc- these countries are so far away they are actually converging to EU rules for trade as they go along but do not have to provide a level playing field- whereas we are trying to diverge as much as we can and then to ignore their requirement of a level field with them is not going to work. We will end up with no FTA anywhere if we keep going like this

You heard of container vessels and that watery stuff, sons of the sea etc.
We would better of going for a WTO default exit and negotiating later. The terms offered to the EU are incredibly generous and they are too idealogical to see it.

A little time for reflection may help the EU in its battle for its democratic soul.

The UK sends 45% of its exports to the EU27. The EU27 sends 6% of its exports to the UK. So a Free TradeAgreement is over 7 times more valuable to the UK than the EU. That is why the EU holds all the cards. Please, learn some basic maths before you post things as embarassingly wrong as this.

Except for the little matter of the 94 billions more they sell to the UK than the UK sells to the EU. Trying to compare 27 countries output to a single one won’t wash. Even so, the 45 percent of exports totals only 11 percent of our GDP. Please, learn not to compare apples with oranges.

Cora Dunn, UK exports to the EU amount to c41%, not the 45% of exports you cite. You have forgotten the Rotterdam (etc) effect. In value terms we exported £265.3bn to the EU whilst they exported £357.4bn to us (Pink Book 2019 for 2018). A difference of £92bn in the EU’s favour.

Moreover most of our business is conducted with only a few of the EU27 – principally Germany, France, Italy and Spain (excluding Belgium and Holland due to the distorting effects of world imports/exports via Rotterdam, Antwerp, etc). So you see our imports from a few EU countries are very significant.

You sound as pathetically needy as Mr Frost himself – “please please give us a deal like you gave Japan and canada please please”. The EU will do what suits it, it has control. Britain is on the sidelines, throwing a tantrum when it doesnt get its own way. That’s Brexit for you

Mr Frost is acting as our Negotiator, not a Rule-taker subservient to the other trading party’s preferences.

Products and services are worth only what their consumers demand, based on need. Each of our consumers makes his or her own choices. Decisions involve specification, price, availability and much else. Consumers within EU nations make their own. They have chosen to buy more of our output than we have of theirs. On balance, we have the advantage; plus the flexibility for worldwide choice.

Above all, Freedom endows us with higher values than any convoluted club could cook up.

This letter was long over due but now Banier, who is no fool, must now understand our position and aim very clearly. If he does not get back to the negotiating table PDQ we will know for sure that the EU is trying to punish us for leaving. They have lost the ‘high ground’ and their present stance will damage them far more than it will us

You were absolutely correct in your speech yesterday. There is certainly no intention of the 27 offering the UK a decent free trade deal without unacceptable strings attached that would compromise our sovereignty. As Mr Frost said, no sovereign country could accept what the EU is proposing.

To save time, Boris should write to von der Leyen immediately saying that no deal is possible unless the EU accepts that after 31st December, the UK will be a sovereign, fully independent country. This means there has to be an independent disputes mechanism that does not involve the ECJ and our status as an independent coastal state has to be recognised over fishing rights which will therefore need to be decided in the form of annual discussions as happens between the EU and Norway.

Boris should go on to say that, unless the 27 announce that they will accept these parameters before the next round of talks commence, there will be no point in holding them. We should then move to planning a WTO exit while leaving the door open to the 27 to come back at some point when they have accepted the situation.

As Barnier insisted very early on that “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” Boris should make it very clear that no further payment to the EU will be made after 31st December 2020 without a free trade deal and that unless we are granted full and indefinite access to all aspects of the Galileo project, we will be deducting the full cost of our investment in Galileo from the November and December payments.

No this interminable saga needs to end. What is the point? in getting an agreement to your suggestion then wait until 31st December.

We need to rescind the offer of an FTA and exit immediately to a default WTO.
Negotiate deals with the ROW and possibly later review some areas where we could arguably benefit from a potential deal, viz other in the world on a UK priority basis.

The UK will not be fine either way , not in the sense of jobs growth funded services and ongoing resilience. I wonder how many of the people who are now unemployed care so much about our constitutional arrangements with our neighbours they thin k it is worthy risking jobs for ?
It was always clear that the Uk was going to ask for things it could not possibly have as the Brexit campaign was based on a succession of lies. This is will lead to a great deal of self inflicted suffering .

Of course we know what the Brexit State will do ..” Its those nasty foreigners ..its the foreigners wot did it ”
In the old days a morally bankrupt state would actually start wars somewhere, (like Abyssinia ). Now they just start a war of words (like the attacks on teachers or immigrants )

I have never seen such squalid shameful stupid government in my life but there it is .
By the way do you ever get out of your panamas nowadays John , or just pop down to pick up your cheque ?

Reply I work long days, attending various on line conference calls or being in the virtual Parliament, fully dressed in a suit as you can see from my speeches.

Newmania, There were no “lies” on the Leave side, you must be thinking of Remain. I’ll never forget Remain claiming we would be like Albania after Leave; and that we got back “nearly” £10 for every £1 we gave the EU. Hilarious!

The EU relies on (Treasure island) Britain’s contributions and highly profitable trade so much they cannot get their heads around not having their cake and eating it.
In 50 years they have never reduced their expenditure in line with the member countries reduced budgets and always ratcheted it northwards on “Le Grand Project”.
Now things are plummeting they will blink first starved of sheep-like thinking.
Britain and other countries National Debts have ballooned – something will have to break before they realise this.

Barnier is behaving as if he (the EU) were deaf, we said we don’t want to be in the single market, he comes back with ‘
You can’t be in the single market without ECJ and “level playing field”, this playacting is just another time wasting exercise, but this time we have the clarity of real Brexit instead of the disastrous May “negotiations”
You and others are right; the EU doesn’t change its spots and will try to frighten us by other means. We need to prepare the only counter argument – as many FTA’s with other major economies.

I am of the view we would be much safer and better off without any agreement with the EU as I fear some part of it will give it a foot in the door which they will of course exploit agressively. If we are to do a deal it should not be entered into until 31st December 2020 is well past.

We set out our global tariff plans, that’s our no agreement position .Thete is nothing in it to fear.

Thank you Mr Frost. A clear, comprehensive, sensible, factual, explanatory and undemanding piece of correspondence. Of course it was met with immediate rebuke, only to be expected. We have, once again, made ‘Insufficient Progress’, that’s the problem, progress means totally different things to each party.

“Is the EU stupid or wicked in thinking that the UK wants to stay as part of the single market, and therefore needs to make concessions to do so?”.
The latter I would contend.

What everybody should realise is that everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) that the €U have done, are doing, and will do, in regard to Brexit is aimed squarely at preventing the first member state from leaving the union. Because if that happens, then the whole rotten house of cards comes tumbling down around their ears and other member states will want some of the same – especially if we are seen to prosper outside.

They must prevent it at all costs, and Project Fear (V1.0, 2.0, 3.0, n.0…) is another tool in their arsenal. Endless delays = remain, and their tactic now is to delay and delay and delay in the hope that the British people will become fed-up with the Tory Government and eventually elect a Labour one. (Ideally they would like a Liberal Dimotw@t one and must have been gutted that Jo Swinson lost her seat. Oh dear how sad – never mind!).

Boris, Frosty, the rest of Government and the people must remain steadfast against any efforts to dilute Brexit. There must be NO further delays or ‘transistions’ (…each of which is a cue for both remainers and the €U to chuck out anything and everything that has thus far been discussed, and reset the clock, wringing their hands in woe and proclaiming that it isn’t possible to ‘do’ a deal in the time remaining. Well chaps, what happened to everything you HAVE agreed amongst yourselves in the last 4 *flipping [*misprint] years?!).

If Barnier [et al] continue whingeing then I would suggest we bring forward our final leaving date from 31st December to 21st October, declare that date a new public holiday and we can all raise a glass to both The Admiral AND to finally having left the €U and ALL of its institutions.

Mr Frost makes it crystal clear in his opening remarks that M Barnier has invited a written statement to help him in his discussions with the 27 European government leaders who dictate his brief, along with the EC. Mr Frost rightly reminds M Barnier that we have been seeking agreements with the EU based on its other third country treaties. The EU insisted that we would be regarded as a third country from an EU perspective, and this is the basis of the free trade we propose.
The strong implication of the EU’s insistence on refusing a FTA and trying to keep us in the single market is that it does not *really* want to regard us as a ‘third country’, or indeed recognize our independence at all, but to tie us helplessly on a chain to the EU. The UK and its newly-elected parliament have bluntly rejected that piece of infernal impudence.
By failing to change the record, the EU is in danger of having a dangerous and implacable enemy on its doorstep. It seems that – however unaccountably – this is its aim.

What do you mean ‘you are leaving’? You have already left 31st January

The EU is not interested in your version of a FTA- your idea is for a cherry picking deal or separate deals to suit yourselves- it’s just not going to fly

Friendship doesn’t come into it- not when dealing with perfidious albion

UK compares with Canada and Japan but that’s all- the difference is huge

There won’t be any concessions or extensions to the talks it’s way too late for that and the EU has more pressing business to be getting on with

You can have your freedoms but fish is a different thing it was never defined properly nor accepted that UK waters are uk- but only controlled by UK. Since the EEZ fisheries was set up and it was always accepted that these were EU or EEC waters so go figure- the original UK fisheries limits from before 1973 extend out to 12 miles only from a coastal baseline

Either way the unfortunate british public are going to have to pay for this brexit stupidity

Absolutely correct, the EU either step up to reality and a mutually beneficial FTA or they face the consequences that will be suffered by their own producers. There is little they have that cannot be produced at home or elsewhere in the World. Those who think they will miss Brie or Camembert should try home produced Waterloo and a myriad of other options. I only feel sorry for all those European producers let down by a bunch posing EU officials in Brussels. Sad but thats what happens when you entrust your future to second rate politicos.

The argument about the UK leaving will never go away. The glimmer of light is Scotland who now have a legitimate and legal right for a second referendum on independence (this will happen within 2 years) and leaving the UK and returning to the family of Europe.
I want to see an independent Scotland and Scotland demand the pound is scrapped as its a UK pound and no longer tenable as the UK will not exist without Scotland .
I want to see the Union Flag consigned to history because without Scotland it cannot continue.
Within my lifetime I want to see young people finally push a future English government to enter into the EU permanent Customs Union as the only way to go.
I will continue to proudly wave the EU flag as my flag of choice.
I understand the EU will produce a type of National Identity Card for British people to buy and act as part of the union of European people when either visiting or staying in the EU. I hope this is done quickly.

David, the matter of the United Kingdom as a member of the EU has been decided and will not be revisited in our lifetime, if indeed, the EU continues to exist in its present form. We will make a success of Brexit and in the end the EU, if it does continue to exist, will eventually come round to agreeing a trade deal with us.

English politicians are out of step with the public on the issue of Scotland.
We hold no animosity towards the majority of Scots, but I am quite sure that a majority of the 58 million English citizens want to see an end to the constant whinging from North of the border and for Scotland to pay its own way.

We do not want to continue to subsidise Scotland to the tune of £10-12bn a year when in return we get nothing but abuse and criticism.

As far as the 5m Scots are concerned, they can have their second referendum and vote to leave if they wish. However, if they choose to stay within the UK, it must be on condition that if they want to continue with devolved powers, they must move to a position where they raise all the money spent in Scotland from taxes levied in Scotland.

As far as the pound is concerned, you obviously have no understanding of history :

The Pound Sterling is issued by the Bank of ENGLAND and pre-dates the act of union by hundreds of years. It is very clearly the historic currency of England, not of Scotland. Scots will rightly not be allowed to use it if they vote for independence.

Probably the least important of you inaccurate assertions, but if the rest of the UK, or indeed England by itself, decides to continue to use the Union flag after Scottish independence, should that unlikely event occur, Scotland will have absolutely no say in the matter.

About John Redwood

John Redwood won a free place at Kent College, Canterbury, and graduated from Magdalen College Oxford. He is a Distinguished fellow of All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has set up an investment management business, was both executive and non executive chairman of a quoted industrial PLC, and chaired a manufacturing company with factories in Birmingham, Chicago, India and China. He is the MP for Wokingham, first elected in 1987.